_Bawn_ (Vol. i, p. 440.) has been explained as "the outer fortification,
inclosing the court-yard of an Irish castle or mansion, and was generally
composed of a wall with palisadoes, and sometimes flankers."
The word _bawn_ or _bane_ (the _a_ pronounced as in the English word _hat_)
is still applied in the south of Ireland to the spot of ground used as a
place for milking the cows of a farm, which, for obvious reasons, is
generally close to the farm-house. Before the practice of housing cattle
became general, every country gentleman's house had its _bawn_ or _bane_.
The necessity for having such a place well fenced, and indeed fortified, in
a country and period when cattle formed the chief wealth of all parties,
and when the country was infested by Creaghadores and Rapparees, is
obvious; and hence the care taken in compelling the "undertakers in Ulster"
to have at least "a good bawn after the Irish fashion." In Munster the word
_bane_ or _bawn_ is used to express land that has been long in grass;
_tholluff bawn_ being used to signify grass land about to be brought into
cultivation; and _tholluff breagh_, or _red land_, land which has been
recently turned. To _redden land_ is still used to express either to plough
land, or, more generally, to turn land with the spade.
Now the _milking field_ was, and is always kept in grass, and necessarily
receiving a good deal of manure, would usually be _white_ from the growth
of daisies and white clover. Hence such a field would be called the _white_
field: and from this to the general application of the phrase to grass land
the transition is easy and natural. It may be proper to add, that in Kerry,
particularly, the word is pronounced _bawn_, in speaking _Irish_; but the
same person will call it _bane_, if mentioning such land in English. The
_a_ in the latter word is, as I said before, pronounced like the _a_ in
hat.
The Irish for a _cow_ being _bo_, the phrase may have had its origin
therefrom. On this matter, as on all relating to Irish antiquities, the
readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" may be glad to have a sure person to refer
to; and they cannot refer to a more accomplished Irish scholar and
antiquarian than "Eugene Curry". His address is, "Royal Irish Academy,
Grafton Street, Dublin."